Sam Raimi admits he 'messed up plenty' with 'Spider-Man 3'

While Spider-Man 3 may have its redeeming qualities, the threequel is generally considered a big misstep for the webslinger’s on-screen presence after the much more well-regarded Spider-Man 2. And it seems at least one person agrees with those who have issues with the film—its director, Sam Raimi.

Raimi appeared on The Nerdist podcast this week, and he spoke at length with hosts Chris Hardwick, Matt Mira, and Jonah Ray about his time with the Spider-Man franchise and about his career in general. Specifically, speaking about the superhero films, Raimi bluntly stated that “…I messed up plenty with the third Spider-Man.”

“Each and every one of those Spider-Man films was pretty damn challenging,” Raimi said, prefacing his discussion about the film with the reality that making an expensive, flagship superhero sequel is no small or simple feat.

“It’s a movie that just didn’t work very well,” Raimi said. “I tried to make it work, but I didn’t really believe in all the characters, so that can’t be hidden from people who loved Spider-Man. If the director doesn’t love something, it’s wrong of them to make it when so many other people love it.

“I think [simply trying to raise the stakes after Spider-Man 2] was the thinking going into it, and I think that’s what doomed us,” he continued. “I should’ve just stuck with the characters and the relationships and progressed them to the next step and not tried to top the bar.”

Topping the bar appears to have been the big culprit, not just for the director, but for many members of his crew. According to Raimi, that general mindset, more than anything, likely led to the film’s issues.

“The goal wasn’t to try to top the other pictures,” Raimi said. “It was to tell a bigger story but with a different sensibility about it. But I wasn’t trying to top. That isn’t a good approach. That went into the thinking of a lot of people who worked on Spider-Man 3, and it was not good for us.”

On the podcast, Raimi also speaks at length about his other works, including Drag Me to Hell and the Evil Dead franchise’s past and future. So while he certainly acknowledges what went wrong with Spider-Man 3, Raimi doesn’t appear to have let that prevent him from pushing on with new and exciting projects. At the very least, it seems Raimi is more certain about what the future holds for him than what the current minds behind the Spider-Man franchise have in store for Peter Parker.